Tech Visas, Trade Deals Ignored by Unproductive Congress

U.S. Congress has taken plenty of time off this year. The House has been out 191 days, and the Senate 199 days. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Business Roundtable lobbyists wanted
2013 to be the year lawmakers, free of immediate election
pressures, would revamp U.S. immigration policy, pass a debt-lowering budget and expedite a pair of trade deals.

Instead, Congress is on pace to have its least productive
year ever, with just 56 pieces of legislation signed into law so
far. The former record low, reached in 1995, was 88 new laws.

‘‘The major issues that we think are necessary to jump-start the American economy continue to languish,” said Bill
Miller, top lobbyist for a group that represents chief
executives of companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and
Microsoft Corp.

As the business agenda lagged, Congress this year completed
work on measures such as one that speeds disabled veterans
through airport security and another that converts some federal
land in Wyoming into a local shooting range.

The reasons are many. Partisan rancor grew deeper as a
result of the October government shutdown. Elected officials in
both parties fretted about primaries for party loyalists who
would accuse them of abandoning their principles.

Time Off

Plus, Congress has taken plenty of time off this year. The
House has been out 191 days, and the Senate 199 days. And
leaders gobbled up much of the agenda with debate on measures
the other chamber had no plans to consider.

The Democratic-led Senate passed measures boosting the
nation’s $7.25 hourly minimum wage and prohibiting employers
from firing or refusing to hire workers because of their sexual
orientation, measures that went nowhere in the House.

Meanwhile, the Republican-led House voted 46 times this
year to repeal the 2010 health-care law, measures the Senate has
no plans to consider. Republicans’ insistence on curtailing
Obamacare led to the 16-day government shutdown in October.

With weightier decisions pushed into 2014, many lobbyists
say they doubt lawmakers can overcome partisan divisions before
midterm elections where Republicans seek to retake control of
the Senate and Democrats try to cut into the 232-seat Republican
House majority.

Also, the immigration, trade, deficit-reduction and other
matters must compete for time against a possible revision of the
U.S. tax code and a multiyear highway bill that faces opposition
from lawmakers backed by anti-tax Tea Party movement.

Immigration Measure

Whether Congress will complete a revamp of immigration
policy is very much in doubt, said Carl Guardino, president and
CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. While the Senate
passed a comprehensive immigration measure in June that included
skilled-worker work visas benefiting technology companies, the
House took no action this fall.

“By delaying a solution and taking this into an election
year, they’ve turned Mount Whitney into Mount Everest,” said
Guardino, whose San Jose, California group’s members include
Intel Corp. and Apple Inc. California’s Whitney is the largest
mountain in the contiguous 48 American states, yet less than
half as tall as Everest, the world’s largest.

The split-party gridlock that began after Republicans took
control of the House in 2011 is creating uncertainty in the U.S.
economy and for businesses, said Ed Yardeni, president and chief
investment strategist at Yardeni Research Inc.

‘Positive’ Gridlock

“There was a time not long ago that gridlock was seen as a
positive for the economy and for industry,” Yardeni said.
“Gridlock was a sign of success in our political system,
because it showed the system was in balance. But now the
factions are so far apart and their differences so
irreconcilable that it’s creating problems for the economy.”

After three years of standoffs over the budget and the U.S.
deficit, negotiators are now eying only a limited plan to ease
some of the automatic cuts next year. That deal wouldn’t end
uncertainty for holders of U.S. debt and for businesses, Yardeni
said.

Defense contractors receive signals about what weapons
systems the government might buy from the separate annual
defense authorization and defense appropriations measures, said
Dan Stohr, a spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Association,
which includes Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp.
as members.

Defense Authorization

While Senate and House negotiators yesterday reached
agreement on a compromise Pentagon authorization bill that could
pass by year’s end, defense firms still lack the kind of
lawmaker consensus they need on specific expenditures in an
appropriations bill, Stohr said. They also can’t be assured
Congress will agree on new deficit-cutting targets, he said.

“There are serious doubts about whether it could pass both
houses,” Stohr said of a budget plan that would curtail some of
the defense-spending reductions.

Randy Belote, a spokesman for General Dynamics, says the
automatic cuts prevent the Falls Church, Virginia-based weapons
manufacturer from making decisions about staffing levels for
specific programs, and the cuts will worsen matters.

“While we began to see the impact in 2013, 2014 has all
the earmarks of being horrible,” he said. “We’re imploring
Congress to adopt a stable budget that we can work towards.”

Other executives bemoan delays in advancing the biggest
tax-code changes since 1986. Fred Smith, chief executive officer
of FedEx Corp., says putting off a revamp off misses
opportunities to help job creation and spur the economy.

‘Not Spending’

“We are not spending enough for equipment and software,
and that’s why we can’t create the jobs,” Smith said Nov. 15 on
CNBC.

Some lobbyists say they see at least some chance to push
legislation next year, particularly limited measures that could
help cut red tape.

The House in September passed legislation that streamlines
the permitting and environmental reviews for mining projects,
and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are working on a version. Nancy
Gravatt, a senior vice president at the National Mining
Association, said that raises the prospects of changing the
regulations next year.

Banks’ Priorities

Small banks haven’t given up on action in 2014 on measures
important to them, including changes to housing finance policy,
said Paul Merski, the top lobbyist and chief economist for the
Independent Community Bankers of America.

At the same time, independent banks are focusing on more
than 20 regulatory modifications that would help the industry.

“Because of midterms, many members are going to want to go
home and campaign on accomplishments,” Merski said. “It’s hard
to campaign on gridlock. I think there will be some willingness
early on to form some comprises and alliances and get some
things over the finish line and to the president.”

Meanwhile, 2013 is shaping up to be a year that will be
remembered for roadblocks and delays in Congress, punctuated by
occasional half-steps.

Scores of measures were put off, including a
reauthorization of the Amtrak passenger rail system, and not a
single annual appropriations bill was completed. If the annual
defense authorization bill isn’t acted on this year, it will be
the first time ever.

Farm Bill

Meanwhile, negotiators on a farm bill that benefits
processors including Archer-Daniels Midland Co. pushed their
work into early next year after failing to reach an agreement on
food-stamp cuts. And Congress probably won’t agree by year’s end
to extend tax breaks that expire Dec. 31, affecting wind turbine
makers, motorsports track owners, filmmakers and mass-transit
commuters.

While Obama’s approval ratings are near record lows, the
public’s view of Congress is at rock bottom.

A Nov. 7-10 Gallup Poll found that Americans’ approval of
the way Congress is handling its job dropped to 9 percent, the
lowest in the polling firm’s 39-year history of asking the
question. The poll of 1,039 U.S. adults had a margin of error of
plus or minus 4 percentage points.